Contemporary politics, local and international current affairs, science and extracts from the Queensland Newspaper "THE WORKER" documenting the proud history of the Labour Movement.
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Saturday, 13 May 2017

Locals dismayed as Trump's EPA gives new life to controversial Alaska mine

Environmental activists say gold and copper mine threatens local community

Northern Dynasty has called the Pebble deposit ‘one of the greatest
stores of mineral wealth ever discovered’ – but locals say the project
will cause significant harm to the environment.
Photograph: Al Grillo/AP

The Environmental Protection Agency settled the long-running case
with the Pebble Ltd Partnership, allowing the Canadian-owned company to
seek a federal permit to build its mine near Bristol Bay.
Bristol Bay produces nearly half of the world’s wild sockeye salmon
catch, with the commercial fisheries supporting about 14,000 full and
part-time workers. Conservation groups and many locals, including tribal members, believe the project will cause significant harm to the environment.
The bay is considered a vital resource by the indigenous people who
have lived in the region for more than 4,000 years. Two native
communities beside the bay – the Yup’ik and Dena’ina – are among the
last indigenous people in the world to rely upon salmon for food and
social structure.
The Pebble mine is forecast to create about 1,000 jobs. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said on Friday it would also create 10bn tons of waste that could contaminate the headwaters of Bristol Bay.
“Bristol Bay is too important – economically, environmentally, and
culturally – to be sacrificed for the sake of a mine,” said Taryn Kiekow
Heimer, senior policy analyst at NRDC. “The Trump administration’s
willingness to set aside that proposed determination is a disaster.
Instead of making America great, it risks America’s greatest wild salmon
runs.”
Norman Van Vactor, with the Bristol Bay Economic Development
Corporation, said on Thursday the next challenges to the project could
include additional legal fights and “standing in front of bulldozers”.
Northern Dynasty has called the Pebble deposit “one of the greatest
stores of mineral wealth ever discovered” – containing copper, gold,
molybdenum and silver. It has been looking for a partner since 2013,
when a subsidiary of UK-based Anglo American announced it was
withdrawing from the project.
The dispute dates back to 2014, following the release of an EPA study
that concluded large-scale mining in the Bristol Bay watershed posed
significant risk to salmon and could adversely affect Alaskan Native
Americans. The study provided the basis for the EPA to invoke a rarely
used process under the federal Clean Water Act that mine supporters
feared could result in the project’s veto before the permitting process.

The company accused the EPA of being in cahoots with mine opponents
with a goal of blocking the project. The EPA, in court documents,
characterized Pebble’s claims as an effort to undermine its plan to
protect parts of the Bristol Bay region from development. A review by
the EPA inspector general found no evidence the agency acted improperly.
It also concluded that the agency did not predetermine the study’s
outcome.
The two sides had been exploring ways to resolve the case since
August, when Barack Obama was still in office. The mine has been hotly
debated for years. Environmental activists like the actor Robert Redford
have opposed it and multinational jewelers have said they will not use
minerals mined from it.
While the EPA proposed restrictions on development, they were never
finalized. A judge ordered the agency to stop work while the lawsuit was
pending. Officials for Pebble have argued that the EPA overreached and
expressed hope that the company will get a fairer shake with the Trump administration than it believes it got under Obama.Head of EPA denies carbon dioxide causes global warming
On Friday Scott Pruitt, Donald Trump’s controversial appointment to
lead the EPA, said: “We understand how much the community cares about
this issue, with passionate advocates on all sides. The agreement will
not guarantee or prejudge a particular outcome, but will provide Pebble a
fair process for their permit application and help steer EPA away from
costly and time-consuming litigation.”

Northern Dynasty Minerals, the owner of Pebble, welcomed the deal.
“Not only are we no longer facing extraordinary development
restrictions at Pebble, we will also be assured a fair and predictable
permitting review of our proposed development plan,” chief executive Ron
Thiessen said.
Tom Collier, chief executive of Pebble, said the latest iteration of
the mine would be smaller than previously envisioned, along with “a
number of new initiatives to ensure our project is more responsive to
the priorities and concerns of Alaskans”.
“We know the Pebble project must not only protect the world-class
fisheries of Bristol Bay,” he said, “it must also benefit the people of
the region and the state in a meaningful way. It is our intent to
demonstrate how we will meet those goals in the period ahead.”

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About Me

I was inspired to start this when I discovered old editions of "The Worker". "The Worker" was first published in March 1890, it was the Journal of the Associated Workers of Queensland. It was a Political Newspaper for the Labour Movement. The first Editor was William "Billy" Lane who strongly supported the iconic Shearers' Strike in 1891. He planted the seed of New Unionism in Queensland with the motto “that men should organise for the good they can do and not the benefits they hope to obtain,” he also started a Socialist colony in Paraguay.
Because of the right-wing bias in some sections of the Australian media, I feel compelled to counter their negative and one-sided version of events.
The disgraceful conduct of the Murdoch owned Newspapers in the 2013 Federal Election towards the Labor Party shows how unrepresentative some of the Australian media has become.